Back to Normal
by TheRightWrongs
Summary: Telling Artie her secret was hard; watching him wheel himself away in disgust was even harder, but hardest was looking at herself in the mirror after that, knowing that she hurt the one person who really mattered to her.
1. That's Not Something I Can Fake

**AN: Glee is my newest TV obsession, and Tina/Artie is my new ship. Therefore I bring you this; it's not great by any means but I wanted to get it out there. **

**Disclaimer: A 19 year girl from Massachusetts can totally own the best show ever…NOT! If I did the world would never see Kevin McHale again because he'd be mine! *insert evil laughter* I'd kidnap him just like Michael did on the office. (Just ignore me, I just polished of the last bit of my Halloween candy, so I'm pretty hyper right now XD) **

**Ok enjoy…**

Telling Artie her secret was hard; watching him wheel himself away in disgust was even harder, but hardest was looking at herself in the mirror after that, knowing that she hurt the one person who really mattered to her. She walked back to her own chair as tears filled her eyes. Angrily she wiped them away knowing that tears wouldn't magically fix the problem.

How she could have done that to Artie, she thought over and over. He was her best friend, her confidant, the one person who could look past her 'disability' and see her for who she was.

She jerked her head startled when she heard the slam of a locker door, adjacent to the hallway she was occupying. Quickly rolling herself back to the Glee club room, she dropped off the wheelchair and ran outside to walk home.

By the time she reached her apartment, the tears had run dry but the pain remained the same. She entered the building and ran right up the stairs to Cohen-Chang residence. She flung the door open to her bedroom and slammed it shut ignoring her concerned parents calling. Flopping down on her bed face first she began crying again, sobbing into her gray and blue striped sheets.

She replayed everything that had happened that afternoon beginning with Artie boldly asking her out.

_They had just finished Kurt and Rachel's diva-off and were handing in their votes. The bell was just about to ring for first period and the Glee students were rushing to get out of the narrow doorway in their wheelchairs._

_Artie stopped Tina as she was about to get in the fray of wheelchairs._

"_Tina?"_

"_Yeah Artie, what's up?" She asked curiously._

"_I was wondering if you were doing anything after Glee today."_

"_I was going to practice my solos for 'Proud Mary some more'" She began before crumbling and succumbing to her crush, "But it's negotiable."_

"_Cool," Artie said smiling as he saw a blush creep up on her cheeks, "Did you want to practice with me then?"_

"_Cool," Her blush had now completely taken over her face. They stared at each other for awhile, not noticing that they quickly became the only students in the classroom._

_The bell rang breaking them up._

_The rest of the day was a blur for her; math, science, English, lunch, art, and then history._

_He was already waiting outside of her last class for her like he always did._

"_Hey" she smiled._

"_You ready?" He said as he led the way towards the auditorium for Glee rehearsal._

_Tina walked silently behind him taking the handles of the Artie's chair as they usual did. Upon arriving, Puck, Mike, and Matt, and Finn were waiting to carry Artie in._

_Mr. Schu was waiting in the front row along with a few other Glee clubbers. Mercedes and Kurt were the last to arrive as they strolled in arguing about buttons versus zippers._

_Tina was antsy for the meeting to be over with so she could get some one on one time with Artie. Fortunately a distraction came in the form of Mr. Schu needing to speak to principal Figgins about the wheelchair ramps, so he dismissed the rehearsal._

"_Did you still want to practice?" Tina asked nervously after the Glee kids returned their "Proud Mary" props to the Glee classroom for storage. _

"_Wait, I've got a better idea" Artie announces as begin leaving the Glee classroom._

"_What?" Tina asks._

"_I'll race you!" Artie said taking off._

"_Hey; that's no fair!" Tina said catching on and running after him. "Cheater"_

"_Says the one who ran in a race against a kid in a wheelchair," He joked._

"_I bet I can beat you in a wheelchair then," Tina challenged._

"_This ought to be good" Artie laughed._

_Tina stuck her tongue out as she re-entered the classroom to grab her chair. She came out in her chair and a mock game face on _

"_We go all around the floor and meet back here?" Artie proposed._

"_Bring it"_

"_On your mark, get set…GO!"Artie shouted._

_The two furiously pushed them down the hallway, both giggling aloud neck and neck. Rounding the last corner Artie gained speed leaving Tina behind him._

"_Oh no! Argh you're so much faster! I can't. This is so hard." Tina laughed as she lost the race "No fair! You've had eight years of practice."_

"_Excelling at wheelchair races is about the only advantage. It's like your stutter; it's mostly just a big hassle," Artie said looking down shyly at his lap._

_Tina's smile faltered a bit before she spoke again. "This has been a really fun date," She smiled allowing herself to laugh a little. "But… I want to get out of this chair."_

"_Why?" Artie asked confused._

"_So… I can do this," Tina spoke as she got up from her chair._

_Slowly she leaned over Artie's sitting form and gently placed her lips on his. It was a sweet kiss as both smiled at the other after it was over._

_Artie looked down at his lap once more before Tina once again spoke up._

Upon reaching this moment in her day, Tina began sobbing harder; just thinking about what came next.

"_I have to tell you something…I've been faking it" Tina began._

"_Faking what?" He asked thoughtfully._

"_I don't have a stutter. I pretended to have one in the sixth grade because I didn't want to give a speech on the Missouri Compromise. I was really shy and it made people think I was weird, so they left me alone. And it wasn't until I joined Glee club that I realized how much I was missing. I don't want to push people away any more. You understand what that's like, don't you?" Tina asked hopefully._

_And with one single word her hope was thrown out the window._

"_No," He said an angry frown taking the place of his smile from having kissed her. "I don't. I would never try to push people away, because being in the chair kind of does that for you. I thought we had something really important in common."_

_Tina did her best not to cry as Artie left her with those words._

"_Wait. Artie." Tina said getting up from the chair. "I'm sorry."_

"_I am too. I'm sorry now you get to be normal, and I'm going to be stuck in this chair for the rest of my life and that's not something I can fake." He said further crushing her before turning away to hide his own tears that were seconds away from falling down his face._

Artie's words were like a broken record playing in her head; her head that was throbbing from the past fifteen minutes of intense crying. She lifted herself into a sitting position as she examined the fresh puddle s on her pillow.

She needed to fix this, Artie didn't deserve the crappy friend she was to him, and she sure as hell didn't believe she deserved his friendship either, but she still wanted that if nothing else.

**AN: Ok I just had to write this especially after the last episode. I mean come on! She was faking it, did NOT see that coming. Tina/Artie are just so adorable, I really hope we get to see a happy ending for them. Ok I'm done. Please review, thanks!**


	2. Why Would I Hate You?

**AN: Yes you are allowed to send me hate mail, it _only_ took me 7 months to update. Sorry :/ and a HUGE Thank you to those who reviewed the first part, you all are wonderful :]**

Tina ignored the repeated pleas of her family to come out of her room and talk about it; she preferred to wallow in self pity by her lonesome. She tried calling the Abrams house and no luck. She tried Artie's cell phone and it went straight to voicemail. She logged onto instant messenger and he was online but ignoring her attempts at communication. She gave up after 20 messages when Artie took himself offline. Frustrated with it all she collapsed with a groan on her bed. Giving up she let herself fall asleep.

"Tina, I have to tell you something," Artie spoke sadly from his chair.

"What," She asked still on a high from having kissed him.

"I've been faking," He said quietly hanging his head in embarrassment. "I can really walk."

"Wh-what?" Tina said stumbling over her one word response.

Artie looked up at her confused face and slowly got up out of the chair. He further demonstrated his abilities by walking around the chair and then taking a seat once again. He once again hangs his head waiting for a response from Tina.

Tina looked on incredulously as he moved his legs stiffly. She still couldn't believe what she was seeing. Artie…could walk! She felt the anger swell up in her body, and she looked up at him to let him know exactly how she felt.

Tina jerked awake almost falling off her twin sized bed. Recalling her dream; a fresh stream of tears made their way out of her eyes. Letting them fall she lay back down on her bed staring up at the ceiling; trying to decipher the meaning of her backwards dream.

She glanced at her small digital alarm clock; alarmed that it was already 2 AM. She decided that she should try going back to sleep, but her stomach didn't agree as it rumbled before she could even change out of her day clothes. Tiptoeing into the kitchen she grabbed a package of strawberry milkshakes pop tarts out of the pantry. She popped them into the toaster before turning to get a glass of milk only to be startled by her older brother Tony.

"Tony!" She whisper yelled punching him in the shoulder. "What the hell?"

"Ow!" He joked hiding any real pain she caused him. "What are you doing up anyway?"

"I could ask you the same thing?" She countered.

"I heard someone, came to check it out; now you?" He pestered.

"I was hungry," she said pointing to the toaster that contained her pop tarts.

Tina took that as the end of the conversation and continued to pour herself some milk. She set it on the counter and waited for the toaster to finish her food.

"Can I help you?" She asked her curious brother.

"What happened today?" He asked bluntly.

Tina didn't respond; instead just taking a sip of her milk. The toaster finally finished and popped up the breakfast food/late night snack. She continued to ignore her brother as she sat at the family table. She had a corner of the pop tart to her mouth as her brother took his place at the table and continued to stare at her waiting for an answer.

"What?" she asked putting her uneaten pop tart down.

"You didn't answer my question," he said simply.

"If you must know…Artie dumped me today," Tina said willing the tears to not fall.

"When did you start dating?' Tony asked confused.

"Well…okay so dumped isn't really the correct word but," Tina began failing at keeping the tears back. "Okay so we kind of had our first date today," Tina smiled in spite of the impending doom the story inevitably would bring.

Tina explained everything to Tony through her tears. By the end Tony was hugging her tightly.

"Tina I'm sorry this happened, but you guys will be stronger from it."

"How so?" Tina asked half hopeful half cynical.

"Think about it like this; you could have gone on pretending to be something you're not, having Artie fall in love with a false image of yourself. You would constantly question if he loved the real you, or the fake you. I'm sure you guys will work it out. If he claims to have liked you and then it disappears because you don't stutter anymore, well then could he have really liked you?"

"When did you get so deep?" Tina joked hugging her brother.

"Philosophy major baby," He laughed. "It comes with the territory."

"Thanks Tony,"

"No problem sis," He said giving her one last hug before retreating to his room.

Tina sat back down and ate her now cold pop tarts in a thoughtful silence. She went back to bed after washing her cup, wishing for a sweeter dream than then last.

Crawling under the covers and balling herself up to get comfortable, Tina closed her eyes in an attempt to coax herself into a deep slumber. She succeeds and before she knows it her alarm is buzzing at her to wake up.

She follows her daily routine and gets to school only to see Artie being helped by another student who wasn't her. She's sad but remembering Tony's words of wisdom from last night she soldiers on to her first class.

Artie avoids her all day and Tina does nothing to confront him either. Their friends can sense something is up at lunch when Artie opts to sit with his jazz band friends instead of his glee club ones.

"Okay we can't stand this anymore," Mercedes blurts out in the middle of lunch. "What is going on with you and Wheels?"

Tina looks up at her friend and can see her getting impatient, but Tina doesn't care. She's just not ready to let anyone else in. Mercedes huffs dramatically before returning to her conversation with Kurt about possible costumes for glee.

Soon the friends fall into a new routine. Artie comes by at the beginning of lunch to hang out with Kurt and Mercedes until Tina comes back from buying her lunch. As soon as she sits down Artie departs for either his AV friends or jazz band. Tina plays with her food while receiving stares mean to break her down from Mercedes and Kurt. After 5 minutes she eats about a third of the food on her tray and immediately dumps it in the trash before taking off to the bathroom to cry.

It's about 2 weeks before someone decides to do something about it. Mercedes follows Tina into the bathroom and confronts her.

"Tina, it's time you talk. Right now," Mercedes pleads after the concerned approach fails.

"You're going to hate me too," Tina whispers as she huddles near the farthest wall of the girls' bathroom at McKinley.

"Why would I hate you? Tina we're friends aren't we?"

"So weren't Artie and I and look how that turned out," Tina spits out bitterly.

Mercedes stands there confused as she watches her friend's body slump against the tiled wall as she begins sobbing. She wastes no time before sitting on the floor next to Tina and pulling her into a comforting hug.

"Girl what happened?"

Tina looks up at Mercedes through a veil of black hair and blue extensions. She sees no judgment in Mercedes eyes and therefore begins telling her tale.

Mercedes is angry at first and then confused and finally understanding. They missed all of their next class just sitting there on the bathroom floor; Tina crying and Mercedes consoling her. Just as the bell for class changes rung a knock came on the door and Kurt's head peaked in.

"I've tried 5 bathrooms already, what happened?" He asked spotting them in the far corner.

Tina sobbed through her story once more while Mercedes filled in the gaps. Kurt nodded and grabbed them both by the hands and attempted to lift them off the floor.

"Let's go ladies, this floor is filthy." Kurt demanded.

Mercedes rushed to pick herself up as if only remembering at that moment where she was exactly. They both helped to lift Tina up. They walked out arm in arm supporting Tina while she cried her last tears over this matter.

Telling Mercedes and Kurt her secret was the second hardest thing she'd ever had to do, until it came time to inform all of her teachers and Glee clubbers. The teachers didn't know what to think of it and most of the Glee club didn't seem to care. They weren't really her friends at that point anyway.

Everything started returning to normal after that. Artie was not a vindictive person and therefore didn't harbor any ill feeling towards her. He did however ignore her one on one which hurt Tina more than if he were to publically bash her.

She wanted his companionship again. She wanted to be able to sit with him at lunch when Mercedes and Kurt had other plans. She wanted to walk with him to class, her pushing him and listen to him rattle on about the newest video game that was coming out. She wanted him to talk to her like before, even if that did mean embarrassing and awkward proclamations about which appendages of his worked. Most of all she wanted that look he would give her when it was just the two of them around. That look he gave her right after she gave him his first kiss, and hers too; she wanted it all back.

**AN: Thanks for reading! Now like I said you can totally send me hate mail...or you could review? If you want you can leave me your thoughts on what happened in season 1 and how Glee-taststic is was! (Or you can ignore me as well I mean who uses words like Glee-tastic? LOL)**


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